Proposed changes by the Trump administration to the federal Endangered Species Act are raising alarm among conservationists working to save Hawaii\u2019s plants and animals.<\/p>\n
While the current administration says the rule changes are needed to reduce regulatory overreach, conservationists say the rollbacks will open the doors to destroying the natural world and driving many species to extinction.<\/p>\n
Maxx Phillips, Hawaii director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the islands would be drastically affected by the changes, as the 1973 Endangered Species Act has been instrumental to their survival, protection and recovery. The public comment period for changes ended Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re already in an extinction crisis,\u201d Phillips said, \u201cso rolling back key provisions of what has been a very monumental and successful statute at this time is mind-boggling.\u201d<\/p>\n
In late November, the Department of the Interior\u2019s Fish and Wildlife Service announced four changes to ESA to \u201cadvance President Donald J. Trump\u2019s directives to strengthen American energy independence, improve regulatory predictability and ensure federal actions align with the best reading of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the new rules, Phillips said, the process for listing a species as endangered would be more difficult due to a narrowing of how far into the future agencies can look while evaluating threats. Basically, she said, they discount concepts such as habitat loss, climate change and invasive species, all of which are scientifically proven to already be harming species.<\/p>\n
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The process of establishing critical habitat protections \u2014 key to species survival \u2014 also would be weakened by a new rule allowing places to be excluded if economic impacts outweigh the benefits.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the Fish and Wildlife Service must consider economic and national security factors before designating critical habitat and prioritize habitat already occupied by the species at the time of listing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think about the military carve-outs Hawaii has repeatedly seen, and how economic and military used to override environmental protections,\u201d she said. \u201cIt places more weight on speculative economic claims while discounting scientific evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sad reality, Phillips said, is that \u201conce habitat is destroyed here, it really cannot be replaced.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Center for Biological Diversity said the rollbacks are similar to those proposed by the previous Trump administration in 2019 and 2020, which the center challenged in court and remain in litigation.<\/p>\n
Hawaii, due to its geographic isolation, has witnessed the evolution of many unique species found nowhere else in the world. But this also makes the Hawaiian islands vulnerable, accounting for about 500<\/a> of the nation\u2019s threatened and endangered species that need ESA protections, according to conservationists.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s endangered species include Hawaiian monk seals, yellow-faced bees, dozens of forest birds such as the alala (Hawaiian crows), the Hawaii akepa, and the Oahu elepaio, along with hundreds of plants and ferns.<\/p>\n